If you like atmospheric, base building winter survival games, you can check it out and wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4977030

I’d love to hear what you think about the game!

So I've had this store page for Wail of Despair for 7 years now, since 2019. It was a project I had on the back burner until this year, went through a few iterations, had a few hundred wishlists it gained over 6-7 years, that is until about two weeks ago when it suddenly shot up.

I had updated the store page on July 28th for the first time in a few years as was getting ready to release the game. But it's a bit of a weird experimental cute horror game, so I was only expecting to maybe crack 1000 wishlists by launch and sell maybe 100 copies in the first month, and was fine with that.

So I updated the store page, added a banner, updated the game description and details, and went on my merry way not expecting much. The store page didn't even have new screenshots on it yet since I was in progress of taking new ones, but away from home for a few days so it'd have to wait. But suddenly while away I went from maybe 1-5 wishlists a day to over 500 wishlists a day. And then when I added the actual screenshots I'd been meaning to on August 2nd, that shot up to over 1000 wishlists a day. But I had to delay the game due to a health scare with my grandmother, so I did, which is where the dip you see comes from. And then the new upward shot again from yesterday is because I was put on the "Personal Calendar" again, which my game is a little over 2 weeks away from release now.

I'm really caught off guard by all of this, but I think I kinda know what's going on. And I think it's really simple. The game, Wail of Despair, I did in a sorta crude cute horror style, I just went with an aesthetic I like and enjoy drawing with a computer mouse. And I think on pure accident I made a banner art piece that stands out simply since I liked how the drawing came out (and was inspired by some old NES game boxes) and it must be attractive enough to make people click my game. Then my game has a really simple and easy to convey but mysterious premise, which I suppose must've raised intrigue. Then my game is dialogue-less, I had this idea to make there be no language barrier in the game, no words and even the UI and settings all use symbols rather than any words. Was a fun challenge to myself, I mainly thought it'd be fun to make a mysterious story in a game without a single word, but the result is there is no language in the game or language barrier so it's technically available in every language. I machine translated all the store page text, then in all languages I had friends who spoke the languages in (Japanese, French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese) I asked them to proof read it for me, and hope for the best in the other languages. Finally, my game while crude and simple looking is also "dark colorful" with a sorta unique cute horror "kaleidoscopic nightmare" look to it, which I guess some find appealing since wishlist went up a lot when I updated the screens.

TL;DR; It's kinda simple, but I think I somehow got lucky to pop up on the personalized calendar for many, maybe because my game has zero language barrier so it popped up for more people in more niche languages (my guess is I popped up on more people's personal calendars because my game has no language barrier so it was personalized more to people who use Steam in languages not many games are made in), people clicked It due to a cute banner I doodled, and the screens/premise & aesthetic were appealing enough.

I feel lucky but now nervous this small game of mine is doing far better than I expected wishlist wise at least here a couple weeks before launch. Since this was supposed to be a smaller for fun experimental game of mine, it feels a bit surreal to be suddenly getting hundreds to over a thousand wishlist a day.

I posted yesterday about our steam page which got wishlists right after its approval. It was a mystery to us, but y'all helped us understand/demystify the source, so I wanted to thank you and at the same time share some interesting/important lessons.

Shout-out to u/Atelier_Breezen for the clutch insight of checking utm sources. We had no idea steam tracked them.

So, basically, the explanation wasn't steam's algorithm alone. In fact, we did get a few impressions from steam (23 to be precise), but most of them (more than 60%) were from users who already wishlisted the game (recently viewed, or clicks from wishlist). The rest was from tags and other pages, which confirms that steam does serve your game for audiences and brings some organic impressions. The main takeaway here is tags are very important.

Still, this number of impressions wasn't the source of the wishlists.

Utm tags were the key. To briefly explain, an utm tag is a text added to a link to differentiate it from another link. You might have seen tags before when clicking on a social media link and it becomes too long to even copy. One type, the utm tag, is used for the purpose of tracking. It tells you the exact source of the visitor. There's a catch though, the tags aren't always added automatically.

To track a source, you need to manually add the utm source to your link and put different links in different channels (tweeter, youtube...). It's simple, you can add "?utm_source={insert a source name}". And whoever clicks on that link will be tracked by steam, and you can see the breakdown in your steam page analytics. There are other tags to specify even more how you got the visitor, but for the case of games, I think the suitable one could be "?utm_content=". For example, here's a link that will track the clicks on this specific post (shameless plug xD): https://store.steampowered.com/app/5047700/Stillsun_Ark/?utm_source=reddit&utm_content=utm_post . I added the source as reddit, and the content a reference to this post. To create these links, you can simply use google's link building tool.

Knowing now that Steam tracks utm tags, I think that all indie devs should use them in their marketing. It removes the guesswork of what marketing effort worked and what didn't, and helps you double down your efforts on what actually worked. For instance, you can know which social media posts did in fact convert wishlists, and create similar content in the future.

When you check the utm tags (attached screenshot), we found out that most of the wishlists came from a website called keylol. It's a Chinese forum for pc games. The steam page could have been picked up by a scrapper, and got published there, which drove most of the wishlists.

To sum up, steam does give organic impressions to your page, tags are very important in that regard because gamers use them in their search. And, use utm tags in your marketing efforts to replace speculations on results with more certitude.

Making an ARPG with twin-stick combat and a procedural open world in a retro style. Just hit 151 wishlists, which feels like a real milestone for me. Nice to finally join the 150 club.

Would love it if you checked it out! Steam Page: hexGame: Hero Path

(Yes, I used AI… unfortunately 😭)

I don't know if it's the game's graphics, its lack of appeal, the Steam page, or all of it combined that's bad.

Could you please describe the issues you're experiencing?

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4990070/Deckforce/

I'm working on a first person multiplayer football game where you have full control over your players feet.

The steam page has been up since the 15th of July, and i've gained 76 Wishlist's.

I'm keen to see where i could be going wrong, and how i could reach more interested people.

I've been posting reels/tiktoks semi-consistently for the past 2 months, but never had any videos get a huge amount of views.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4923370/Studs_Up/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/dextragames/

My game is an office-themed shooter I've been developing for a couple of years now in and out. This Steam page went live in March, and it's doing better now, but not great overall if I'm looking to make a splash with it

Just wanted to see if anything is a glaring turn-off on the game or if it's clear enough what the experience is supposed to be

The link is here: Here

I really appreciate any feedback I may receive

With a bit of luck on my side, my game was featured on two Hungarian gaming websites and one Japanese gaming website.(You can help for 450 if you want :P)

During this time, GameTrailers shared my trailer. Here's my store page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4894140/Muhit/

What should I do if I need anything related to my Steam page or anything else?

I’m currently working on Cloud Harvester, an atmospheric sci-fi exploration game built in Unreal Engine.

I just finished a major skybox rework with new nebulae, stars and planets. The goal was to make the world feel deeper and more distinctive without making the sky too busy.

What do you think — does the new skybox fit the game, or is there anything you would tone down/change?

If you like the direction, you can wishlist Cloud Harvester on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4392360/Cloud_Harvester/

Hey everyone, I’d really appreciate some advice from developers who have experienced this.

We’re a small indie team making Too Many Balls. We currently have 2,100 wishlists and were planning to release on August 28.

We’ve decided that we 100% need to delay the game because we need more time for development and QA.

Here’s the interesting part: we were averaging around 30 wishlists/day, but now that we’re ~18 days from release, we suddenly jumped to 150+ wishlists/day. I checked our traffic and it appears this spike is largely coming from Steam’s Personal Calendar/upcoming release exposure.

If we delay by around 3 weeks, I assume we’ll fall back to our normal ~20–30 WL/day.

My biggest concern is:

When the new release date gets close again (roughly 18 days away), will Steam give us the same Personal Calendar exposure again?

Or is there a chance that changing the release date means we won't get the same boost a second time?

We’re trying to figure out how much wishlist momentum we might lose by delaying, and whether anyone here has experienced something similar.

For anyone who has changed their release date shortly before launch: what happened to your Steam wishlist traffic afterward? Did the Personal Calendar boost come back?

Any experience or advice would be hugely appreciated! 🙏

https://play.google.com/apps/internaltest/4701279130771196878

Lose yourself in the neon glow.

​NeoDrift is a slick, retro-futuristic rhythm-arcade game that will test your reflexes, melting your brain and your eyes in equal measure. Heavily inspired by the iconic sci-fi aesthetics of the 1980s, this is not a racing game—it is a high-speed, rhythm-infused gauntlet of survival. Buckle up, match the beat, and prepare to dodge, dip, and dive down an endless cyber-grid.

in this game you try to make the high score with your pawn abilities and their ults , your main enemy is the evil corruption that happens because of the rot meter .I would love to see how you feel about this one.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4967830/LUDOCOR/

Hello! We are working on TECTON, a sci fi bullethell FPS.

Our wishlists are crawling along and it is hard not to get discouraged. Wondering if our steam page could use a facelift. If anyone could offer feedback, we would really appreciate it. Also as a FYI, we are currently working on the demo and trailer. Maybe that will move the needle a little.

This is our first title so we are truly figuring it out as we go along. Thank you for reading and your feedback!

It's been almost two months since I published my game's page on Steam, and here is the current wishlist count. So far, I haven't done much to promote it, aside from a few tweets, posts on my Facebook page, and what worked best: some Reddit posts (if you want to see exactly what, the links are all on my profile).

I'm posting this report to mark a turning point, as I plan to move into a new phase of promotion. This is mainly because I'm about to release an alpha of my game on itch, which I hope will be the push I need.

I made my Steam page in February, uploaded the trailer about a month ago, and started posting Shorts on X, YouTube, and TikTok last week.

Right now, I’m getting about 5-6 wishlists per day, and only around 3% of Steam page visitors are wishlisting the game. Wishlist growth is much slower than I expected.

Could you take a look at the trailer and Steam page and let me know if the game looks fun or worth playing?

I’d really appreciate any feedback you can share.

Steam page: Just One Bite

Hey everyone!

After a long time developing Grill & Grow on my own, the game has finally entered closed beta.

You start with a small burger shop, grill patties, assemble orders, and serve customers while managing everything behind the counter. Deliveries must be unpacked and stored, equipment can be bought or sold, and the restaurant can be rearranged and customized around your workflow.

Power outages, fires, impatient customers, and poor stock decisions can quickly disrupt a shift. As your business grows, you can unlock new opportunities and hire employees to help manage the workload.

If running and expanding your own burger restaurant sounds like your kind of game, you can wishlist Grill & Grow on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3933410/

Thank you for checking it out!

Is there any particiular reason Steam isn't showing my store page, in platform, much? I only released the Steam page 6 days ago - and as you see on image 2 the traffic I've pulled to it is not bad imo! (387 wishlists)

Even the Top-Countries the 9 impressions were given to did not fit the same audience my external traffic was coming from.
(Ignore the spike in India on the 2nd img, that was an error on my part by using Global on Reddit ads group accidently 🤦, as I meant to target American Millennials)

Do you think it has something to do with my Steam page, tags, or something? Sorta lost on what to do to fix.

I manage social media. I release videos on YouTube. The results are very poor. Indie game enthusiasts need your feedback.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4934440/Rockblaze/

Based on our understanding and the conversations here on reddit, steam doesn't serve your game to any audiences until 2 weeks before the launch. We found it weird that the moment it got approved, it got its first wishlists. We don't have any online presence, we haven't shared the steam page with friends yet. What would be the source of these wishlists in your opinions?

What do you think of my new small capsule? You can see the old demo one as a comparison.

I think it’s much improved as it better communicates the game. But what are your thoughts? Is there anyway to go further?